


le velo pour deux, or something like that

by cottagecrowcore



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Boys In Love, Fluff, Julian Devorak Route - Upright Ending, M/M, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29448603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottagecrowcore/pseuds/cottagecrowcore
Summary: Julian wakes up on the morning of February 14th to nobody sleeping next to him. Because, as it turns out, his partner has planned a wild goose chase that'll send him all across Vesuvia.a fluffy valentine's day fic with my boys because i love them
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	le velo pour deux, or something like that

**Author's Note:**

> title is from the song le velo pour deux by the brobecks

The first thing Julian noticed when he woke up on February 14th was the stark absence of a warm body curled up against his chest. 

The second thing he noticed was how he’d grown so used to the feeling of waking up with someone else right beside him, and how he never would have been able to imagine that before his life had taken one of the best turns it ever had.

And then, finally, he realized that the lack of a person meant Gale wasn’t here. This shouldn’t have been too alarming, sometimes people got up early, but even when Gale woke up before him, he would always stay in bed until Julian woke up. So that begged the question: Where the hell was Gale?

Julian bolted to his feet and checked every corner of the shop to no avail. He was the only one here, it seemed. That wasn’t good. What if Gale was hurt, or in danger, or--

Something on the counter caught his eye. A folded-up piece of paper. His mind went to the worst-case scenarios (A ransom note? A goodbye letter? A note with the same words he’d read four years ago when he came back from the palace only to learn that his apprentice had died on his watch?), but he calmed when he saw what was scrawled on it. The text was simple, _Read me!_ next to a heart. The handwriting was unmistakably Gale’s. He unfolded the paper and read its contents.

> _Good morning! Want to play a game? ~~If you don’t, sucks to be you because I spent way too long planning this.~~ The rules are simple. I’ll give you a clue that points you to a place in Vesuvia, then you go there to get the next clue._
> 
> _Clue #1: Sorry for stealing your drink, but in my defense you were the top suspect in a murder case._  
> 

That certainly helped to calm Julian’s nerves. It was all just something fun Gale had planned for him. Now, he had to figure out that clue. The second part meant it was something from when Nadia had hired Gale to find him. Stealing his drink, when had that… oh! That was when they were still strangers, in some sense of the word. He’d been surprised when Gale swapped their drinks, like the clever man he was.

All this had happened at the Raven, and so the Raven was his next stop.

Despite it still being early in the morning, a few patrons had already crowded into booths, though the majority of people in the Rowdy Raven at this time of day were slumped over on a table surrounded by empty steins. 

Julian strolled over to the counter, where Barth was cleaning glasses. “Hello there Barth, so nice to see you. Has Gale been here?”

“Mhm. Told me to give ya somethin’.” He set an empty glass down on the counter. “But he also said not to give it to ya unless you’ve had breakfast.”

“What?”

“Have ya eaten?”

“Well, erm, that is to say--”

“So that’s a no. You’re lucky yer boyfriend knows ya so well. He gave me this just in case.” Barth pulled out a basket from under the counter and pushed it over to Julian. A couple thick slices of pumpkin bread laid inside. “Eat.”

Julian smiled at the thought. Gale knew him all too well. 

When he finished eating, Barth handed him a folded note like the one he’d found on the shop’s counter. He unfolded it, and it once again revealed Gale’s familiar handwriting.

> _Hey congrats on getting the first clue!_
> 
> _Clue #2: Okay, so what if it’s poisonous? The flower was beautiful._  
> 

There was only one place that could be referring to.

It wasn’t that long of a walk from the Rowdy Raven to the hidden garden, though it did take Julian a bit of searching to actually find it again. The garden was how he remembered it: Blue flowers gently glowing, overgrown foliage claiming marble pillars and statues as its own, vines creating curtains. He had to admit, it seemed so much less magical in the light of day. It was certainly a big difference from how it was at night. 

His train of thought was sent off-course by the call of a raven. Malak swooped through an opening in the vines, landing on Julian’s shoulder.

“Oho, Gale roped you into this as well? Well, what do you have for me?”

Malak flew away, returning a few moments later with something clutched in his beak. He dropped it right onto Julian’s head. 

“Ah-- You startled me there,” he mumbled as he picked up the fallen object. It was a flower, a deadly starstrand. And nestled in its petals was another folded-up note.

> _Do you like the flower? I thought I should return the favor._
> 
> _Clue #3: Hey remember when you tried to “”break up”” with me even though we were barely together haha_  
> 

The tips of Julian’s ears grew hot. Well then. That would make his next destination the docks, wouldn’t it?

Afternoon sunlight and the casual bustle of the piers surrounded him as he searched. Finding a note here seemed like finding a needle in a haystack. He walked up to the edge of a pier, and the view was… familiar. The water, the Lazaret in the distance, once a monument to his failures, now something he’d learned to not let define him. If it were night, this would be the exact same view he looked out on in the… er, breaking up incident. 

Sure enough, there was a rock sitting at that edge, holding a piece of folded paper in place. Gale’s handwriting stared back at him when he unfolded it.

> _Sorry to tease you about it but in my defense, it’s pretty funny. Anyways, you’re almost there! Just one more clue._
> 
> _Clue #4: You can have this._  
> 

Now that was a strange clue. All the other ones had been fairly straightforward. You can have this… what was that supposed to mean?

Julian slowly exhaled. Time to use logic. All the other clues had related to things that had happened when they were on their adventure to prove his innocence and defeat the Devil. It would stand to reason that this, too, related to that. Maybe he just needed to go through what happened. There was the eel incident, the day at the market, the breakup, investigating at the palace, and then…

A realization dawned on him. At Portia’s cottage the night after the investigation, he’d asked if he could have that. 

Oh, Gale. If anyone would’ve remembered that one detail, it would be him.

Walking to the palace grounds took a good part of the afternoon, and the sun was beginning to set by the time he made it to the familiar gardens of the cottage. A bit of anxiety about being caught by guards crept over him. He reminded himself that he was innocent, no longer wanted for murder. He could have this. 

Out of nowhere, someone barreled into him and wrapped him in a tight hug that squeezed the air out of his lungs. He smiled when he looked down and saw the person responsible. “Sorry if I kept you waiting, dear,” he said as he wrapped his arms around Gale.

“Did you, uh, you like it?” His voice was slightly muffled from having his face pressed up against his chest, but he could still be clearly heard. 

“Of course. It was a lovely trip down memory lane.” He leaned down to press a quick kiss to the top of Gale’s head. “Though I have to ask, what was the occasion?”

Gale pulled back from the hug and blinked owlishly. “Do you not know which day it is?”

“It’s, er… actually, I think I forgot to check when I woke up…”

“It’s February 14th.”

His eyes widened. “ _Oh._ ”

Gale laughed as he pulled Julian in for another hug. “Happy Valentine’s Day, you goof!” And then, softer, quieter: “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> portia in the background, watching this: my fucking god! these bitches gay! good for them! good for them


End file.
